Nerve
by CataD'Mellark
Summary: High-school wallflower Felicity decides to participate in an online game that involves completing challenges and dares throughout Starling City. Although she is initially thrilled by the game's antics - and the fact that it asks her to partner with a handsome stranger for some of the tasks - the experience eventually escalates into a life-or-death struggle.
1. Chapter 1

**Summary:** High-school wallflower Felicity decides to participate in an online game that involves completing challenges and dares throughout Starling City. Although she is initially thrilled by the game's antics - and the fact that it asks her to partner with a handsome stranger for some of the tasks - the experience eventually escalates into a life-or-death struggle.

 **Disclaimer:** I do not own _Arrow, Nerve_ , or any of its characters. This is an adaptation of the movie with the same name.

 **A/N:** Hey guys! I am super excited about this story. I recently got obsessed with the movie Nerve, and decided to write my own adaptation of the film. This also has a bit of OoC with some of the characters, but I tried my best. I hope you like it, read and please tell me what you think! Here you have chapter one.

* * *

Felicity typed the password and the computer unlocked itself onto the main screen. The first thing she saw was the sweet smile from her brother in the background picture, from his graduation, with both her and her mother on each side. She opened Spotify and clicked on the first playlist. A soft sound started playing on the background. Opening Google Chrome, she logged in on her email and checked her inbox.

 _ **URGENT: MIT Admission Reminder**_

 _ **Dear Felicity,**_

 _ **Congratulations again! This is a reminder that your reply is due tomorrow. This could be the first day of the rest of your life. Click Accept and join the class of 2020**_

 _ **Sincerely,**_

 _ **Chet Evans**_

 _ **Interim Deputy Director**_

She started writing a reply, already declining the offer she waited for her whole life. She saw the face of her mother next to the browser window, and continued to type until she just let her hand fall with a loud slap on top of the keyboard in frustration. How could she be such a loser and not tell her mom that she wanted to leave the little town near Starling City and move to the other side of the country? Just as a groan went out of her throat, a small beeping of a notification sounded.

 _Ray Palmer tagged you in a post.  
_

Her heart started pounding inside her chest, and she hesitated before clicking the alert bubble, opening Facebook on a black and white picture of Ray with a simple caption: _Go Cougars. Peep Rally today. Thanks for the photo_ _**Felicity Smoak**_ _._

She bit her bottom lip. She was about to press the like button when a FaceTime call came in. It was Sara.

"Good morning, what are you doing?" Sara said through the screen. She was on her bedroom, and you could see the huge S on top of her bed, like one of those you would see on Broadway. "Besides stalking Ray, of course."

Instantly, she opened the newspaper with rapidly reddening cheeks. "I'm reading the news, thank you very much."

"Oh, you're reading the news, you're such a good liar." Sara got up of her bed with an ironic smile.

"Seriously, how do you know I was stalking Ray?" Felicity said with a breathy chuckle.

"Because I know you very, very well. Oh wait! Did you tell your mom about MIT yet?" she picked up her phone and then looked at the camera again.

"Yeah, I told her. She's super excited for me to move across the country and go to a really expensive tech school." Felicity said with a serious face.

"Really?" the high-pitched sound Sara made her laugh and she said no. "No?"

"No, I haven't found, I haven't found the right time to tell her…" a loud beep on Sara's computer interrupted her. Her friend sent her a message with a link through Facebook chat.

"Oh, Nerve is starting. Sorry, this is really important." Felicity frowned slightly.

"What's Nerve?" she asked curious.

Sara replied distracted. "It's a game. Here, just click on the video." Felicity did as instructed and the word Nerve appeared on capitals with black background.

" _Welcome to Nerve Starling City. Nerve is a 24-hour game like Truth or Dare, minus the Truth,_ " a robotic voice said. A variety of weird images and gifs and videos played on the screen. " _Watchers pay to watch. Players play to win, cash and glory. Are you a watcher or a player? Are you a watcher or a player? Are you a watcher or a player?_ "

"It's cool, right?" Sara said.

"This looks very sketchy. Is this legal?"

"I don't know. Probably not. Just do it. Sign up and watch, time's ticking."

"Okay, signing up. Look, this is me signing up to watch you." Felicity left the window of the game open but did nothing at all.

"Felicity! You have to sign up and watch me. It's very important that I have Watchers."

"Felicity!" the voice of her mom sounded from the kitchen.

"I got to go. My mom just got home," she said to Sara, who told her to just do it. "I'll sign up after breakfast, I promise."

"Thank you. I love you, I'll see you in a bit." she put her index finger on her nose and Felicity did the same.

"Bye."

"Bye, babe."

She closed her laptop's lid and went to the kitchen to her mother. She was seated on the dining table sipping on a mug of coffee. Felicity took a big spoon of pancake dough and spread it on a pan. That was when her mother asked about her future.

"I mean, Sara hasn't gotten into any schools yet, and she doesn't even care."

"You know what? Sara doesn't have to care, she has a trust fund. And you have something far more valuable than that."

"Here we go." she muttered with a roll of her eyes.

"You have drive, you have focus, you have a scholarship to a local college. And even though we can't afford the dorm, you get to have me as your new college roommate." her mom moved her butt against hers in a funny gesture.

"Actually, I, um… I have kind of a cool idea about that." Donna's eyes looked at her expectantly. "What if we fixed up Roy's room and listed you on Airbnb or something? Maybe it's time to finally go through his stuff and maybe give some of it to Goodwill, and I could give you some space."

"I don't want space." Her mom replied instantly. "I just want you."

Felicity sighed. She knew Roy was still an open wound on her mom's heart, so she was going to comply this time for her. "Okay, I am totally down with commuting. I can get my reading done on the ferry."

"Yeah? That will work, right?"

"Yeah…"

* * *

Loud yells and cheers surrounded her as she pressed the shutter button, turning the camera to get shots from different angles. She was on the football's team changing room taking pictures for the school's yearbook, but she couldn't really take the lens away from Ray's face as he stared straight ahead to their coach with the Cougars's pet. She walked back to John, who was holding her gear for her on a corner.

"Hand me the zoom lens." she asked removing the regular lens she had.

"Here…" he handed her what she asked and received the other camera lens. "Doesn't it feel a little unbalanced if every single yearbook photo is of Ray Palmer?"

"It's not my fault he's on the team." she answered innocently.

John Diggle was her best male friend. They had met in Elementary School and were united for their growing love for tech. His hair was always shaved, with chocolate eyes and a geeky smile. Everything about him was kind of nerd; the button up shirts, the giant coats, the thick eyebrows and the fact that he was always surfing in the "dark web", as he liked to call it.

On the other hand, there was Ray Palmer. The guy she had a crush on for two straight years. He was tall with broad shoulders and tanned skin. He had a beautiful charming perfect smile and long eyelashes. He was the kind of guy that any girl would want, the captain of the football team, hot but also friendly.

"Go Cougars! Let's go!" the bunch of big guys started to jog to the main door that would lead them to the field, making Felicity back up on John's chest, who was loudly telling the players to be careful with her. She started hitting the shutter button over and over, taking pictures all the way to the bleachers.

Outside, there was a lot of people with banners, the cheerleaders were about to start their routine, which included Sara with dark sunglasses.

"Laurel! Laurel!" Sara screamed to her sister, who was on the bleachers cheering for the team with everybody else. She passed her her phone as it jingled. "Are you ready, remember what to do?"

Laurel adjusted a couple of things in Sara's phone and then focused it on her sister. "Okay, you're on!"

"Hey, Watchers! It's Sara Baby. I'm counting on you to get me to the final round, so don't let me down and I won't let you down, I promise." she blew a kiss to the camera and slid her index finger across her nose to Felicity. She did the same thing with confusion. As Sara ran back to the cheerleaders, Laurel directed the camera to her.

The cheerleaders routine began, football players stood behind them all and people on the bleachers had their phones out recording everything. It took Felicity a while to process that they were all recording as Watchers for Nerve. Just as she was trying to figure out what her first dare was, the routine ended but Sara turned around and lifted her skirt, revealing her pale and round butt to all the audience and recording phones. When she finally put her skirt back in place, people started cheering like crazy as more sounds came out from Sara's phone, one distinctively of money. The wild crowed continued cheering as Felicity showed the picture she had taken to Diggle, who just let out a breathy laugh and a disbelieving smile.

What the hell had just happened?

* * *

"This girl… the Watchers made her eat dog food. She could barely keep it in, but she did. Then these guys had to jump off a cliff to the sea. This guy, he is really popular. He rode his skateboard behind a police car by grabbing the back of the car, for three miles." Laurel told Sara and Curtis.

"I have so many Watchers now!" Sara exclaimed happily, and her friends cheered for her. "I just need to get in that little box thing. Who's winning now?"

"Apparently, this guy named Ryan. I guess he put peanut butter on his junk and let his dog lick it off." the older Lance explained.

"I could do that…" Sara muttered.

"But you don't have a dog." her sister reminded her.

"Or a dick, Laurel." Curtis said with a funny face.

Before any of them could say anything else, a loud beeping came out from Sara's phone, indicating a new dare for her.

"What is it? I need something flashy like the peanut butter thing." said Sara as Felicity and Digg approached them with their food. Felicity had taken her blond hair in a low ponytail and her camera hanged on her neck to her black and white stripped chest.

"Oh my god, how weird. How do they know you're afraid of heights?" Laurel asked with a deep frown.

Curtis snorted. "That's what they do, it's easy. They just take your info from your old profiles and put it in your Nerve profile."

"That's so creepy!" Sara exclaimed sipping her soda.

"You just got _suspended_. I thought you were done playing Nerve." reproached Felicity to her best friend.

"Hell no!" she fought. "The girl who won Seattle now has millions of followers. She's insta-famous."

"Who cares?" groaned the blond with a roll of her blue eyes.

"I care, Felicity. I don't expect you to understand. I'm an adrenaline junkie, you like to stay within your comfort zone, that's fine."

"That's not true. What about that pole dancing class we took?" at this, Curtis raised his eyebrows and bit his pizza.

"Liz, I dragged you there and you sat in the corner and watched." Sara said.

"I am a visual learner." Felicity told the group as if it was the most obvious response in the world.

"Why are you attacking her?" John intervened, backing up her best friend.

Sara rolled her eyes at his reaction. "I'm not attacking her, Diggle."

"Yeah, you are." he continued. The youngest Lance just glanced back to Felicity.

"Life is passing you by. You need to learn to take a few risks every once in a while."

"I do take risks!" she refuted. To which Laurel smirked in irony, Curtis kept his pizza in his mouth and shook his head, and even John kept quiet.

"Really? Okay, fine. Let's just say, hypothetically, you are playing Nerve." she crossed her arms on her chest. "What would be a good Nerve dare for Felicity?"

"Make out with Ray." Laurel whispered and Sara nodded enthusiastically.

"Baby steps, baby steps. Just talk to Ray." interrupted Curtis feeling sorry for his friend.

"What?"

"He probably likes you, too. You'll never know if you don't talk to him."

"And then everybody that's watching you they would just go on and vote." explained Curtis. "Who wants to see Liz mackin' on Ray P?"

"Oh my god!" Laurel said high pitched.

"You guys…" Felicity sighed.

"All who wanna see Liz macking on Ray P say yes," both Laurel and Curtis raised their hands and yelled a big yes. Then Sara pointed at John. "I assume no."

"Abstained," he replied sourly.

"Thank you," said Felicity.

"Alright, you've been dared. Do you accept you dare, Felicity?"

"What's the point? We're graduating, I-"

"All you have to do is say 'Hi.'" Sara interrupted her.

"I don't want to say 'Hello' to him," she said frustrated.

Her best friend shrugged, "Fine. I love you so much, Felicity, but you're a Watcher. So watch me do it for you."

"No no no, Sara, please no." Sara got up of the booth they were in and started walking to the directions some of the football players were.

"Just watch!"

One of the reasons that, even though Sara and Felicity were best friends, they had different groups of friends, was because they were completely different. It used to bother Felicity to death, until she just began to deal with it. There were a lot of things in Sara's life that she didn't like and that made her feel sorry for her, but ultimately, Sara was a good friend that always supported her. But in this moments, where her gut battled Felicity's repressed courage, that she didn't feel comfortable at all in her presence.

When Sara got to their table, a guy named Jackson started clapping.

"Yeah, Sara! Why don't you show us the front next time?"

"You first, Jacks. I hear it's really big," she did a gesture of a small size with her hands, and the guys laughed at him.

"I guess it's average…" Jacks muttered.

"Hey, Ray," she touched his shoulder and he smiled up to her. Felicity groaned watching in her seat with Curtis, Laurel and John.

"What's up?" Ray said with his charming tone.

"I was wondering, do you have a girlfriend right now?" she asked him with her left hand of her hip. He hesitated a bit and she rushed to clarify herself. "It's not for me, it's for a friend."

"Which friend?" Felicity covered her mouth in embarrassment. Sara didn't bother to say her name or anything, she just pointed her to her seat and all of the guys turned to see her, half covered in the booth, half covered behind Diggle. Slowly, she waved with a fake smile, and Ray turned back to Sara. "No, she's not my type."

"You're not nearly as hot as you think you are," Sara slapped his shoulder. Upset to her core, Felicity started to gather her stuff.

"Yes, he is!" Jacks mocked Sara.

"And you are a douchebag!" she told him.

Felicity took her bag and stood up to flee the scene. Curtis and Laurel called out for her, and Sara was about to chase her but John spoke up.

"Just let her go. Not cool, Sara."

She slumped back in her seat and let out a huge breath. "I'm just trying to help her."

"Let's not help her," John said again.

"She'll figure it out," she shook her head in exasperation.

Felicity hopped on her bike and lost herself in the music playing in her earbuds and the familiar streets of her little town. Across the river, she could see the huge buildings of Starling City that attracted so many tourists from all over the world.

She felt like screaming. And she did.

She was so fed up with this life. She was fed up of her friends thinking so lowly of her. She was fed up with being the bored one. She was fed up of everybody else that had an exciting life. She was fed up with herself and her incapacity of telling her mother that she wanted to leave. Fed up with Sara for being so reckless and making her the laugh of the school. Fed up with being careful. Fed up with everything.

Her phone beeped on her pocket with two messages of Sara.

 _ **I'm sorry Liz**_

 _ **You're too smart for him anyways**_

At the same time, a text from John came in.

 _ **Screw Sara. Not everyone has to be a player**_

She got to the apartment she shared with her mother and made a bee line to her room. Throwing her stuff to her bed, she sat on her desk with her computer in front of her. The window with Nerve was still there, mocking her with both the words Watcher and Player.

She was done being a watcher of life.

With the smallest of hesitation, she pressed the button for Player.

" _Hello, welcome to Nerve. You have chosen Player. Nerve is a direct democracy. Watchers decide your dares. The two players with the most Watchers by the end of regulation will advance to the final round where the winner takes all. Watchers can watch from anywhere but they are encouraged to film live. So don't be alarmed. There are three rules: One, all dares must be filmed on the Player's phone. Two, there are only two ways to be eliminated. Fail or bail. Three, snitches get stitches. Thank you for keeping Nerve a secret._ _Good luck, Player."_

The second the voice finished talking, her phone beeped, requesting her to enter her touch ID.

 _ **Are you ready for your first dare? |**_ _ **ACCEPT|**_

That was it. There was no turning back from her decision. Everybody would see her doing God-knows-what in those hours left on the game. Nonetheless, she pressed accept, took her jacket and made a call for Diggle.

What she didn't know was that as soon as her door closed behind her, the still open window in her computer started opening different profiles, extracting all information from her social media, her emails and apps, even about her joint bank account she had with her mother.

Felicity had exited her apartment when the computer shut itself down.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary:** High-school wallflower Felicity decides to participate in an online game that involves completing challenges and dares throughout Starling City. Although she is initially thrilled by the game's antics - and the fact that it asks her to partner with a handsome stranger for some of the tasks - the experience eventually escalates into a life-or-death struggle.

 **Disclaimer:** I do not own _Arrow, Nerve_ , or any of its characters. This is an adaptation of the movie with the same name.

 **A/N:** Hi guys! It's been amazing to get all those emails with the feedback of the first chapter. I really enjoy writing this, but at the same time, it feels like a challenge, because in movies you can see too many things to describe, but in writing you can use the character's thoughts more. Anyways, hope you guys like the way this one turned out, and that you leave a beautiful review! Seriously, there's no better feeling that when you get reviews on a story and people express how they feel about our writing skills. Now to the fun part! Nerve has officially started.

* * *

"John!"

"Hey, I'm pulling up outside. What the hell's so urgent?" said Digg through the phone. Felicity was running down the stairs so fast she almost broke an ankle.

"We have to go to Big Belly Burger, we have 15 minutes," she almost reached the door to where she knew his car would be.

"Why, what's going on?" he asked a little bit worried.

"I signed up for Nerve and that's where my first dare is," she opened the emergency door just in time to see John's disbelieving face.

"What do you mean, you signed up as a Player?" on those last words he hung up his phone and looked at her with wide eyes. She ignored him and got on the passenger seat. "Oh men…"

"What, is it so hard to believe?" he directed his brown eyes with exasperation, letting out a groan and throwing his hands to the sky.

John started the car and took the main street to direct them to the famous Big Belly Burger, Felicity's favorite place to hang out and read some of her books, but also the best place to eat burgers, fries and milkshakes. It brought her some sense of peace, in the middle of her nervousness, to do this dare in a place she was familiar in. Familiarity helped. At least, that was what she told herself over and over until John spoke out again.

"You know that some kid supposedly died in Seattle playing Nerve?" he told her, clearly trying to change her mind about what she was getting herself into.

She just shrugged. "Oh, I don't buy that. If kids were dying, the game would be shut down."

"No, they can't shut it down. There's not a single server," he fought, which left Felicity feeling a little bit more apprehensive.

"What does that mean?" she asked. Even though John wasn't such a big fan of IT like her, he spent almost all his free time in a hackers' club in Starling City.

"Everybody that logs onto the game becomes a new server. So it's impossible to turn the game off."

"How do you even know so much about this game? You've never even played."

"Look, I spend a lot of time on the dark web, alright?" John said cockily.

"Oh, a lot of time on the dark web, is that right, hacker boy?" she teased him.

"Yes, that is right. You're only accessing ten percent of the internet, you know," Felicity rolled her eyes at that, because she did know all of that, "Why are you even doing this? Seriously, it's dangerous. Is it because of Sara?"

"This is not about Sara. I'm-"

"It's just not like you," Digg's dark eyebrows furrowed in a frown full of worry. He turned one last time to get to Big Belly's when she answered.

"That's the point."

As soon as they crossed the threshold, her cellphone beeped in a similar way to Sara's had been doing for the entire day. It was time for her first dare. With her stomach heavy with growing knots, she lifted the screen.

"Kiss a stranger for five seconds?"

"A stranger? Liz, I'll give you a hundred dollars." John said carefully.

Felicity ignored him and sighed. She looked around the place, to the booths and tables and the games and a jukebox. The whole space was lighten in blue and purple, giving a smoky atmosphere but at the same time comforting. She spotted a guy that had to be in his late twenties and resolved herself. She slid her finger through the screen to accept. _Okay, okay, you can do this,_ she thought to herself.

"You're just gonna kiss some random person." John muttered, like he was just processing what was about to happen. She approached the guy with an awkward smile but passed by when she saw another head in the booth in front of him.

"He has a girlfriend…" she whispered, her nervousness threatening to consume her.

The continued walking to another section of the building, crossing a wooden arch that had the refreshments. There was a guy refilling his cup that let out a deep, loud belch. Disgusted, both teenagers continued their way to the back. Then a message showed on her screen.

 _ **HURRY UP!**_

A bit frustrated, she dropped the phone at the same time that her number of watchers started to gradually increase. Then John pointed a fat, old man with a dirty hat and an equally dirty looking beard. He must have been on his fifties or something.

"Just kiss that guy," said John.

"Okay, I'm gonna kiss that guy."

"Yeah, that's what I'm saying."

She inhaled deeply and almost choked she said, "I'm gonna do it."

With a clear of her throat, she was about to take a step towards the man, when he rose up from his booth and walked past them, letting them see the guy who was behind him, his face covered by a book, but not any book, but her _favorite_ book.

"Or that guy. He reads." John rolled his eyes at his friend's hesitance.

"Well, make a choice, clock's ticking," he reminded her. She let out a long sigh and nodded to herself.

"I'm kissing that guy. Okay, you sit here, tell me when you're rolling, okay?" she started speaking faster than normal and straightened her football-like jacket.

"Okay, it's Mission Impossible now?" he asked and won a smack on his arm on response. "Just go."

There were thousands of emotions and feelings and sensations going through her in that very moment. There was anticipation, hope, hesitance, anxiety, excitement… she couldn't name them all, because there were things that she didn't even know what they were. She clenched her fists a couple of times and turned in front of the table in front of him. The guy had a black leather jacket on with a couple of patches on his arm. She could do it. It was just a kiss, right?

"To- _To the Lighthouse_ , that's my favorite book." Felicity stuttered. The guy slowly put the book down and she had to blink twice as fast to get over the surprise of how _gorgeous_ this man was. He swiped his eyes over her with a small smile.

"Really?" his voice was deep, rough, like it was coming straight from his chest; it was like a growl, one that left her speechless for a couple more seconds than necessary. His hair was cut really short, kind of military style, he had thick dark blonde eyebrows, and below them were the most haunting eyes she had ever seen; they were blue, dark on the edges of the iris and getting clearer to the pupil. They were like that moment of sunset where half of the sky was dark and then slowly became to a lighter shade of blue, the one after all the orange and purple tones. He had a slight stubble, but that couldn't hide the fact that he had a square jaw.

She looked at John for a second, and he urged her to go on.

"Please tell me they get to the lighthouse in the end," he continued and Felicity directed her eyes to his face again. She hummed but he spoke again. "Actually, don't tell me… Uh, okay, just tell me real quick."

She literally shook her head before responding to him. "Yeah, they do, but that's not really what it's about. The lighthouse means something different for each of the characters…" he started smiling to her with his eyebrows raised, and her heart felt like exploding with anticipation, so she started rambling. "It basically represents what they want most in life, and I'm sorry that I'm totally geeking out and ruining the story."

She wanted to smack her head to the table. Or one of the windows.

"No, I was the one who asked," he assured her charmingly. She looked at John one more time, and he did a five seconds sign with the hand that was not holding her cellphone. And that guy just sat there smiling and giving her a so deep stare that she felt almost naked. _The dare,_ she needed to do the dare and get it over with.

 _Here goes nothing._

She took a fast breath and leaned over, slumping on the booth the guy was seated in, gently grabbing his neck and crashing her lips to his. She was barely aware of his eyelashes brushing against her cheeks, an indication of him closing his eyes. In the background, she could hear John counting to five Mississippi's and a slow old song that reminded her of Frank Sinatra. She felt him push himself into her, returning the kiss. _Oh dear,_ she thought with her hands still on the line where his neck and his back separated.

"Done…" she heard John repeat for like fourth time. She separated herself from no-name guy and opened her eyes just in time to see him do the same.

He smiled widely again. "Okay…"

"Okay, bye," she let out a breathy laugh and got up. She could feel his stare on his back as she stomped away towards where John was with her phone, which beeped indicating her success on the dare. She let herself fall on the booth in front of her friend sensing that her face must have been completely red of embarrassment. Her words came out at the same fast beating of her heart. "Oh my God, I can't believe I just did that."

John hid too, blocking both of them from stares of the other people in the room. "Oh gosh, why am I embarrassed?"

"Did you get it?" Felicity asked him with worry.

"Yeah, it was a miniseries, I got all six episodes." John tossed her the phone with a serious, bothered face.

She lifted herself and looked back, only to find the booth empty. "Where did he go?"

"I have no clue."

Covering her face with her hands, she sighed for like the thousands of times. She could still feel her heart beating a hundred miles per hour, and her lips tingled with the remaining sensation of the kiss. Her phone beeped with the cash register sound and she took it just in time to see the message on the screen.

"Felicity, a hundred dollars has been wired to your account…" she read. "Should I check?"

"You should totally check." John said mocking her with wide eyes. She was about to answer him in a no-very-nice way, when a _ding ding ding ding_ came from the main room.

It was the guy, beating a fork against a glass to capture everyone's attention. Then he started singing and dancing.

" _Every time I look into your lovely eyes…"_ he started, lifting some sunglasses of a man that was watching him.

"What is he doing?" she whispered dumbfounded.

John shared the same expression on his face. "I have no clue."

" _I see a love that money just can't buy…"_ twirling and moving, he looked straight to a phone camera that was recording him. Then he directed to the small hallway where they were seating. " _One look from you!"_ he pointed straight at her and she felt her face grow red. He stepped on the top of a table as he continued his path to them. " _I drift away and I pray that you are here to stay."_

"He's singing to me!" she realized.

"No, it's a dare," said her friend pointing behind him to a waitress holding a phone. "It's a dare."

" _Anything you want, you've got it, anything you need, you've got it…"_ she smiled at him as he got closer and closer to her, balancing through the tables while people sang along with him. " _Anything at all, you got it, baby!"_ Felicity laughed as the song ended and he jumped and landed in front of her. "You got it."

Clapping was coming for everywhere, and the waitress went to him to congratulate him and give him his phone back.

"You won your dare, congratulations." Felicity said with a small laugh.

"Back at you," he answered with that husky voice.

"Mine was totally embarrassing but at least I got a hundred bucks, right?"

"I'm sorry, I promise I didn't know what was coming. Do you mind?" he directed that question to John and took a seat beside him on the booth.

"Sorry, I'm sitting here…" John started to say but cut himself short when the guy seated anyways.

"They just told me to sit in that booth and… sorry…" he lifted his body up a little bit so John could get part of his long coat that got trapped under him. "Some kid came by and gave me that book."

" _To the Lighthouse_ , yeah. My favorite."

"Exactly because it's on your Facebook page." John interrupted. "They know all the information about you, Liz."

"Your name is Liz?" the guy asked. Her eyes involuntarily went to his throat where his Adam's apple moved.

"Short for Felicity," she explained. He nodded slowly.

"I like that."

"Her parents named her after the Latin meaning, happiness and good fortune." John said again. Felicity looked at him with wide eyes, surprised at his behavior towards the situation.

"Yeah, I guess my mom was expecting somebody else," she tried to offer a small smile that she felt fake.

"I don't know about that…" the guy said and a slight dimple marked his cheek. "I'm feeling quite fortunate today… that was some kiss." Felicity felt her face lit up for the thousandth time and she felt a tingle of pride at his words. "Well, I got a game to play but good night to you guys," he took one of the fries that was on the table before they got there and tossed it into his mouth. He was about to leave when both his and her phones beeped at the same time.

They looked at each other after reading the screens. He swallowed soundly.

"What?" asked John taking her phone from her hands.

"Apparently, the Watchers like us together," said the guy.

 _ **GO TO THE CITY WITH HIM / $200 /**_

"I mean, you can't even go to the city, right?" refuted John looking straight to her eyes. She saw worry and warning in his eyes; he clearly didn't trust this guy at all.

"Yeah, no, I can't go to the city, yeah." Felicity said. "I'm not even playing, I was just doing one dare."

"Are you sure? It's two hundred bucks."

"She's pretty sure, man," insisted John with a hard voice. Felicity was surprised that he was adopting that attitude, even if it was just because he was worried, he had no right to act like her boss.

"He always tells you what to do?" he smiled at her knowingly, almost as if he could read her angered thoughts.

"No," she stated with a strength in her voice that she usually didn't use, the one Sara called her loud voice. "No, he doesn't."

John rolled his eyes but didn't say anything else, while the other guy stood there with the same smile on his face. "I'm gonna be outside if you change your mind. It's nice to meet you, Felicity. See you, man."

He disappeared through the doors and looked one more time over his shoulder, catching her staring at his back. He smiled one more time and then turned where she couldn't see him anymore.

"He thought that those were our fries." John laughed trying to relieve the air.

"I could use two hundred bucks," she blurted instead. Her friend let an exasperated sigh out.

"Liz, you're not going to the city. You said one dare."

She stared at him with serious face for a couple of seconds. She did say that she was only doing one dare, but the excitement was already coursing through her veins. One crazy night doing dares with a handsome stranger wouldn't hurt, right? Especially if the Watchers planned on partnering them up. Felicity let the tug on her cheeks curl her lips and she bit her bottom lip.

"I'm sorry," she slid out of the booth and stood up to go in the guy's direction.

"You know what, Charles Manson was a singer."

Ignoring him, she crossed the building, greeting a couple of familiar people, and towards the parking lot. She found him touching some things on a motorcycle, helmet on his lap and a small frown on his eyebrows. As soon as he heard her footsteps, he straightened with grace.

"I was hoping you'd come," he said with his chin up high. She stopped a couple of feet away from him.

"I'm just warning you, I don't think I'd make a very good partner. I'm not the daredevil type. You should team up with my friend Sara actually, she's obsessed with playing Nerve." Felicity argued, wanting to go but at the same time taking some precaution, part of it because of John and part of it because of herself.

"But the Watchers want me to team up with you," said the guy reaching behind him to take another helmet, one much more comfortable looking that the one he had on his lap. He offered it to her with what could only be described as a begging face, but it did the trick.

She took a step forward, hesitating once again. She needed to get things solved out, and now. It was dangerous and reckless, but also, it was what she wanted to do when she signed up for the game. It wasn't going to last forever, and she could bail whenever she wanted to.

"The second I feel uncomfortable, I'm out." Felicity warned and he nodded in understanding.

"That's fair," he stretched his hand for her to take the helmet, his eyes boring into her just like they did when she leaned over to kiss him. She took the helmet with determination, and when she did, he gave her the cutest smile so far.

"Okay…" she hopped on the bike and put the helmet on. On the back of his jacket, there was a smiley face patch, and she stared at it when she heard the distinct sound of a Nerve dare being accepted. When she slipped her arms around his waist, the engine came to life, roaring in the parking lot.

"I'm Oliver, by the way."

That was the last thing he said before he drove out of the parking lot and towards the rest of what seemed to be a promising night.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary:** High-school wallflower Felicity decides to participate in an online game that involves completing challenges and dares throughout Starling City. Although she is initially thrilled by the game's antics - and the fact that it asks her to partner with a handsome stranger for some of the tasks - the experience eventually escalates into a life-or-death struggle.

 **Disclaimer:** I do not own _Arrow, Nerve_ , or any of its characters. This is an adaptation of the movie with the same name.

 **A/N: Hey there guys! Here I come with a new chapter which is longer than the other ones, but there was so much more happening now that Nerve is in full motion. I hope you like it! It was hard to write but I liked the way it turned out :) Please leave a review and thank you for all the follows and favorites! You guys are the best!**

* * *

The warm wind of a normal spring night in Starling City blew her hair back and filled her lungs as the motorcycle sped through the bridge that united the small town of Everglow Island with the big metropolis of Starling. Some people said that they were the New York City and Staten Island of the west coast, minus the Empire State building and Statue of Liberty. A lot of companies like Queen Consolidated, Merlyn Global, Palmer Tech and Wayne Enterprises were located in the city, each having different skyscrapers that added to the whole vibe of the east coast state.

Felicity felt calm as Oliver drove them through the cars and closer to the city, feeling his deep breaths tighten her hold in his waist. It was still unbelievable all that was happening to her, and how different the day had turned out since that morning.

"Hey, try screaming!" Oliver exclaimed over the loud sound of cars and traffic.

"No!" she replied laughing.

"Just do it! Let it out!" and with that he let out a big scream that made a vibe go through her arms. She imitated him in a high pitched squeal and both of them laughed. "There you go."

They went through the busy traffic of a typical Friday night in Starling, dodging crazy drivers and directing themselves towards the place that the game had indicated. They stopped in front of a building with big letters _Bergdorf Goodman._ The cars that were parked in front of it were expensive, really expensive, so Felicity supposed that it was some high-class clothes shop or something. She undid the helmet and hopped off the motorcycle.

"Alright, this is it." Oliver said turning the engine off.

"Am I supposed to come in with you?" she asked looking at the big building.

"Ah… doesn't say anything about that," he left his helmet hanging on one side of the bike and took hers to hang it next his.

"Well, thank you for the lift." Felicity ran her hands through her hair

"You gonna be okay?" he asked looking down at her. He was at least a whole head taller that her, so if she hugged him, the top of her head would fit just below his chin.

"Yeah, yeah, no, I'm tired, so I'm probably just gonna make my way back home," she stuttered a bit. His phone started beeping, trying to hurry him up to do his dare.

"Um… this is fun. I just gotta… you know" he showed his phoned that had a minute and fifty seconds left.

"Yeah… okay." Felicity awkwardly waved at him and he crossed the street, she followed him with her eyes and then turned around. She was letting a sigh out when her own phone sounded with a new dare.

 _ **TRY ON THIS DRESS  
/$500/**_

 _ **|ACCEPT| |REJECT|**_

On the screen, a beautiful, expensive-looking green dress with long sleeves and sparkles. She smiled; she would be a fool if she didn't accept five hundred bucks for trying on a gorgeous dress that she could never afford. Besides, that would mean that she was most likely to bump into Oliver. Clicking accept, she ran into the store.

As soon as she passed the door, she felt out of place. Women and men with perfect manicure and ostentatious watches and rings. Teens that looked around her age ran their hands over the leather of different purses that probably costed more than her entire camera gear. _Alexander McQueen_ and _Prada_ were just a few of the brands she could recognize. She was never a huge clothes girl, she preferred to spend hours and hours in the local library, or hanging out with John and Sara, or just playing around with her computer. But there, there the people looked so self-centered, that she had a hard time imagining all of them simply lining up to get a movie ticket.

Shaking her head, she focused on the screen, which showed her that she had two minutes to find the dress and try it on. She walked towards the nearest cashier that, fancy enough, was wearing a burgundy suit with a charcoal button up shirt and flashy tie. His hair was styled in a quiff that made him look more like a costumer than a worker.

"Excuse me, sorry," the man slowly turned to look at her, and she swallowed her insecurity showing him her phone. "Do you know where I can find this dress?"

"Your mom's calling," he said with an eyebrow raised. She cursed under her breath and declined the call. She showed him the picture one more time. "That's very expensive…" he trailed, as if seizing her up. "Couture, fourth floor."

"Thank you."

She ran to the elevator and pressed the button with the number four, thanking god that there were no more people to get in the way to slow her down. Her phone kept beeping in countdown and she was nervously tapping her feet, playing with her fingers, trying not to freak out under the pressure. She was about to rip the door open, when it did itself and she shot herself out of the elevator and further into the store.

There were multiple mannequins with gorgeous dresses, and small open rooms with more and more dresses hanged, organized in color, length, material, and anything else you could imagine. She didn't have time to get to look at the clothes, she went straight to look for the black mannequin that had the green attire. She smiled widely when she found it, and when to the back of it. Out of curiosity, she looked at the price tag.

 ** _Size 2  
$3,995.00_**

Her mouth hanged open for a couple of seconds at the realization. Almost groaning, she tried to check if anybody was around, and lifted her hand to get down the zip and take the dress off the mannequin. She didn't make it far, just a couple of inches, but still she let out a gasp of surprise when a female worker came out of nowhere with wide eyes and forced smile.

"Please don't undress the mannequin," the same way the guy on the first floor had done, the woman swept her eyes up and down Felicity's appearance, especially the old, dirty sneakers she had on.

"Sorry." Felicity muttered feeling suddenly small.

"Would you like to try this on?" she asked lifting both of her eyebrows. In a moment of lack of confidence and desperation to prove herself, she stood straight with her shoulders back and made a small sound of agreement. "Let me see if I have it in your size."

"Thank you…" the woman smiled fakely and turned towards the storage room. "If you could hurry up, I'm a little bit late for a party!" she lied as her phone continued to beep.

"Cute," said simply the woman before disappearing through a door.

She stood there a couple of seconds, looking around the room, uncomfortable as hell, until the woman returned with the same green dress hooked around her arm. She signaled with her hand for her to follow her towards the changing rooms.

"Right this way…" she entered to one of the rooms and hanged the dress. "If you need anything else, just let me know."

"Okay, thank you!" she rushed her out of the room and closed the curtain, already reaching for the zip of her burgundy jacket.

"Oh, alright…" she heard the woman mutter.

Her phone showed thirty seconds left, she jumped around trying to get her jeans off, almost don't caring about the fact that all the Watchers –which now were kind of a lot –were going to see her semi naked, on her blue panties that had a panda cartoon on her butt and nice white lace bra. It wasn't that she was a total lover of her body or had a really high self-esteem, but she also knew that she wasn't exactly ugly and had respect over her body, she was skinny but not too much, she had enough on the front and enough on the back.

With fifteen seconds left, she took the dress and started putting it on, slipping on the sleeves and zipping the back as quickly as possible. She grabbed her phone next, stepping out of the changing space, directing the frontal camera straight to her shiny dressed form.

"Okay, dressed." Felicity said showing from her sneakers to the top of her head to the camera. The cellphone screen showed nothing more than the timer on cero and the last number of Watchers she had before it reached the end, which where twenty one hundred. "Hello?" she touched the screen frantically, waiting for something, anything, to happen, before giving a huge sigh and looking at her reflection in the mirror.

Stepping closer, she watched herself in the mind blowing expensive dress. She twirled around and watched different angles of her, smiling at what she was seeing. She pulled her hair out of its ponytail and her natural curls fell freely down her shoulders and down to her chest. She flipped it and curved her lips into a flirty grin.

"Hey, what's your email number?" she asked to her reflection, and then shook her head at her own stupidity. "I mean your… what's your info? Oh, this? This old thing?"

"Felicity."

"Oh!"

She turned around instantly at the sound of his voice, and there he was standing, his phone up, dressed in an elegant gray suit jacket, button up shirt, tie, and all gorgeous and majestic. She almost tripped on her own feet in the process of checking him out without him noticing, and blushed at how much he could have heard of her rambling.

"Hey." Oliver said with that grin of his.

"Hi…" she bit her bottom lip and let out a small laugh.

"You look very pretty." _Well, that's encouraging,_ she thought.

"Thanks, so do you. I mean you look, you know, hot, or handsome, or…" she babbled and was able to stop herself before it got worse. She was about to apologize when his phone beeped. "Do you know what we're supposed to do now?"

He gave her a side glance with a wicked grin and open jaw, he touched his screen a couple of times and then focused his camera just on her. "The Watchers would like me to complete your ensemble, mademoiselle."

* * *

Meanwhile, John was still seated on Big Belly's, sipping on a fresh strawberry milkshake and eating some fries. He tipped the link for Nerve on his phone with a sour expression on his face. The main screen shot up, giving the option of Watcher or Player. He looked at the w-word intently.

"Neither, is than an option?" he said to himself before pressing Watcher.

 _ **WATCH YOU FAVORITE PLAYERS!  
$19.99 FOR 24 HOURS |OK|**_

"Alright, what about my first born son too?" he entered his ID print in the screen

 _ **WELCOME WATCHER: John Diggle  
YOU ARE NOW: ANON27543**_

 _ **LEADERSHIP BOARD:**_

 _ **TYdontDY  
_h3nry  
SladeWill  
HIrAtcha_Boi  
ShakeNBake  
_OLIVER_  
ReLs  
SmokeWeedEVRD  
playerchox**_

The screen kept showing him the _Top 10_ Players with the most Watchers. John pressed on the button to search Felicity in the middle of all the craziness that Nerve was. Different cameras showed her in a store with the biker she ditched him for. He saw her talking straight to the camera the guy, whose name he didn't even know yet, but there were different angles of the scene, which meant that some Watchers were recording them. He tapped on the feed the biker was streaming, and different comments started to show on the left of the screen. Felicity was showing off her attire and modeling some shiny silver heels.

"Oh, Liz…" he muttered. "What are you doing?"

" _How much are they, sir?"_ Felicity was saying, acting like those rich women they used to laugh at when they visited Starling.

" _That would be nine hundred dollars, madam_ ," the voice of the biker made him scowl. He didn't trust him, not even a bit, and he was going to try and make Felicity go back from wherever her mind was at and bring her back to earth.

" _In that case, I'll take two. One for the city and one for the Hamptons_ ," she said with fake graciousness and then broke out in giggles. His feed was cut off and then John passed to one of the Watchers.

" _Excellent choice, mademoiselle…_ " biker-guy bent in one knee with the same elegance and looked at her with an enchanting smile. " _I'll wrap them up for you right away._ "

She stretched her legs and offered him her feet to take off the shoes, which he did carefully. John scoffed, but then the camera turned to the one recording it, a guy on the top list of Players called Slade. He showed to the people a bag of the store and then back at his face surrounded by neck tattoos. The screen filled with some yellow words that read: _DARE COMPLETE._

John had enough, so he raised his hand and asked for the check.

He was going to the city to get Felicity.

* * *

They entered back to the changing rooms laughing at Oliver's imitation of an old woman trying to decide between a coral blue purse or French blue one.

"I'll see you downstairs?" he asked raising one eyebrow in question.

"Yeah, sure." Felicity said with a smile.

"Okay, alright…" he gave her another grin and got into his room, opening the curtain to his changing room and disappearing behind it.

She did the same thing, but was cut short when she found her space empty. Her heart started racing really fast and she rushed towards the next cubicle to see if her things were there. Seeing it in the same state made her begin to panic.

"What?" she whispered as she bent down to check under the seats of every changing room that was available. Then she went outside, to the small waiting room she encountered Oliver, and was about to rip the place apart when she caught a worker passing by.

"Excuse me, miss!" the woman stopped her way immediately and looked at her in concern, especially because she was on her knees. "Did you move my clothes in there?" she pointed to her original room and the woman frowned at her.

"Of course not," she continued her way and Felicity started to have a serious panic attack. She entered to the room again and closed the curtain. She started pacing around the tiny space, and suddenly, she felt like she was choking for air.

"This is not happening… this is not happening…" she started attacking her phone screen with her finger, trying to find somewhat of an answer for the mysterious whereabouts of her belongings.

"Felicity? Liz…" she heard outside her room.

"Oliver?" she opened the curtains, almost ripping them off, and pushed him inside with her. "Did you take my stuff? I mean, my wallet, my clothes, everything is gone," she babbled panicky.

"No, my stuff is gone too," just as those words left his mouth, both of their phones beeped at the same time, showing them a new dare.

 _ **LEAVE THE STORE  
/$2,500/**_

 _ **|ACCEPT| |REJECT|**_

She shot Oliver an even more desperate look, to which he widened his eyes with wariness.

"No." Felicity stated with force.

"Uh, okay…"

"No, no, and _no._ "

"Come on, we have to make a run for it. Let's go." Oliver took her hand and tried to drag her with him but she hold him back.

"I am not shoplifting!" she exclaimed in a whisper.

"We don't have a choice. Come on!" he tried to use the eye tactic with her, directing his gorgeous blue eyes straight to her.

She let out a frustrated groan and looked at the screen of her phone again. They had a minute and forty five seconds to get out of the freaking store, but she refused to steal a four-hundred-dollars dress. Then another idea popped on her head.

"Okay, technically, it just says we have to leave the store."

A twinkle of mischievousness sparkled on his eyes as he pushed his tongue against his teeth in contemplation.

"Right?" she tried again with a high-pitched tone, more to reassure herself than anything else.

He started nodding slowly, and then started taking his clothes off. "Okay, let's do this."

Trying her best not to stare too much or to feel too self-conscious, she unzipped the dress and slid it off, he started unbuttoning his shirt and kicked his shoes out to get rid of his pants. In that moment, more than ever, more than her first time or whatever, she regretted using her panda panties.

Then she took her phone and slid the option of accepting the dare. Letting out a loud sigh, Oliver slid his shoes back on, on nothing more than his underwear and socks. She totally failed in the stare thing, because as soon as she got a glimpse of his toned, hard-looking chest, she had a hard time taking her eyes off of him. She knew that he had noticed, she noted it in the way his biceps twitched, showing off his muscles. Proceeding, he stuck his head out of the room, trying to watch if anybody was around, and turned to her. His eyes remained in hers, and she was surprised at his gentle act.

"Are you ready?" he asked her with a bit of nervousness.

"As ready as I will ever be." Felicity muttered returning the stare.

He nodded one more time and offered her his hand. She took it and hold onto it tight. Then they were sneaking out of the changing room and making their way towards the elevator.

Her sneakers made some occasional sounds, but they ran to hide behind some stacks of clothes. The first woman, the one that got her the dress, was arranging a mannequin, and turned their way, but Oliver tugged at her hand, moving them forward. It was kind of amazing how people were so in their little world that they could pass just by and they never even noticed them, but not because they hadn't run into trouble the first half of the way to the elevator meant that they weren't going to anytime. She was also well aware of the thousand security cameras, and when a dark skinned woman saw them, she had to be the one pushing Oliver forward. They had to make one more turn, when they bumped straight to another middle-aged woman that had that superiority vibe around her.

"Uh…" Oliver said uncomfortable, gripping her hand with more force now. "Let's go."

They ran full speed towards the elevator doors and Oliver pressed a button like crazy until it finally the doors opened and they slipped inside. He repeated his previous action with the closing button.

"Come on, come on…" he muttered impatiently.

The doors closed and they stood there; she had one hand on her shoulder, covering as much as she could of her chest, and the other one crossed her torso, resting her cellphone against her hip. He had his together in front of him, clearly covering certain part of his body. She didn't get to think about it too long, when the doors opened one more time on the third floor. A couple speaking a foreign language walked a couple of steps inside but stopped short when they saw two teenagers on their underwear. She tried to get behind Oliver to cover as much as her body as possible from their two intense stares. Out of nowhere, he grabbed her hand and dragged her out of the elevator into the _busiest freaking floor_ and ran to the mechanic stairs. She noticed him taking his phone out and recording them running in the fancy store, and she did the same with hers. They ran down the stairs, she nearly tripping but being able to grab the side of the rail. Oliver was laughing out loud and smiling back at her, which she could help but return, infected with his adrenaline and excitement.

"Sorry, buddy! We need to come through, sorry!" he was exclaiming, his phone up, and reaching the second floor.

"Excuse me!" she joined him, feeling something she could even begin to describe filling her veins and bones.

They hopped off in the first floor, and she glanced to the guy she had talked to when she arrived, and found him with a terrified expression. Oliver grabbed her hand once more, almost getting to the main entrance, to where his bike was parked. They ditched the security guard and got out of the store. Outside, there were Watchers had gathered and had their phones out recording them.

"Come on, Liz, let's go!" exclaimed Oliver tugging her closer to his body. He crossed the street and a car stopped just a feet away from them. She yelped in surprise. "Whoa, whoa! Hey, stop!" the driver honked at them but they got safely to his motorcycle, that had a bag of the store hanged on the hand clutch.

"Please tell me these are our clothes!" she pleaded, running to the other side of the bike, where there was another bag.

"They kind of are." Oliver said, taking out the suit jacket he had on earlier. At the same time, she pulled out the crazy expensive dress out of the other bag.

"Are these stolen?" she asked honestly scared that they went through all of that, just to be taken for possession of stolen goods. In response, he looked again in the bag and took out a small piece of paper.

"Receipt!" he smiled at her.

"And we get to keep them?!" Felicity exclaimed joyfully.

"All yours." Oliver assured her, already slipping on the shirt. She took a final glance to his chest and then focused on the task of putting on the dress without messing it up or tripping. She asked him for help when zipping the back of the dress. His fingers grazed her skin as they went up, and she couldn't help but shiver at the sensation.

"Who paid for these?" she asked, still not believing that she could keep a four-thousand-dollars dress.

"Probably, one of the Watchers with daddy's credit card." he pointed towards the crowd that was crossing the street. She was about to comment something, but her phoned let that gorgeous sound of a cash register. She grinned happily. "What?"

"Look!" she showed him her screen and the new deposit she had for twenty five hundred dollars. He smiled sweetly at her, and gave her that cute dimple on his cheek. " _Dolla dolla bill ya'll!"_

"I'm sorry, was that a Wu-Tang reference?" Oliver implied, sincerely impressed.

"Everglow Island, represent!" she called out with pride.

"Okay!" he cheered. Both of their phones beeped again. He showed her his screen. "Saint Mark's, ten minutes?"

She smiled knowingly, and he gave her a wide grin in return.

* * *

John was driving through the tunnel of the bridge that connected Everglow with Starling, listening to some popular pop song, when his phone started ringing with an incoming call.

It was Sara.

"Hello?" he greeted.

"Diggle, what does Felicity think she's doing?" she went straight to the point.

" _Have you ever parked a car in your life?"_ he heard Laureal say with an angry voice.

" _I got this, girl!"_ Curtis was saying.

"I have no idea, Sara. Why are you asking me? I'm not her boyfriend." John replied just as frustrated as she was.

"Well, who's this biker she's teamed up with?" she kept asking him as he had all the answers.

"I have no clue, she just ditched me. She's doing what she apparently thinks is best for herself."

He could almost see Sara rolling her eyes. "Yeah, and what exactly is that?"

" _Sara! Felicity is in the Top 10!"_ Laurel exclaimed on the back.

"What?" the youngest Lance said in incredulity.

" _She's in the Top 10,"_ her sister insisted.

"John, Liz is in the Top 10?" she tried to believe with a hint of jealousy. "How is that even possible? How many Watchers does she have?"

" _Like four thousand, four hundred and seventy one."_ declared Laurel.

"How many do I have?!" Sara yelled.

" _Six thousand, eight hundred and six."_ informed Curtis sounding distressed.

"Oh, okay. I have a lot more." John swallowed down the urge of making a smart ass comment about her interest on followers more than their best friend's safety. "Diggle, I really don't think that Liz can candle this. I'm actually really worried about her."

"Yeah, me too," he agreed.

"So get your ass to this party and help me, okay?" Sara sighed.

"Yeah, yeah. I'm on my way."


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary:** High-school wallflower Felicity decides to participate in an online game that involves completing challenges and dares throughout Starling City. Although she is initially thrilled by the game's antics - and the fact that it asks her to partner with a handsome stranger for some of the tasks - the experience eventually escalates into a life-or-death struggle.

 **Disclaimer:** I do not own _Arrow, Nerve_ , or any of its characters. This is an adaptation of the movie with the same name.

 **A/N:** Hi guys! Happy holidays! Merry Christmas, Happy Hannukah, or whatever you celebrate! I apologize for taking so long to update, but this chapter has more scenes that I made up and everything, and like I told you before, it's really hard to write an adaptation of a movie, that plus the last couple of weeks at school, and a lot more other things. But anyways, here it is! Hope you guys enjoy it, thank you so much for reviewing, favoriting and following this story! It's the best gift of all!

* * *

"What happens if I bail?" she asked fidgeting with her hands.

"You lose everything you've already made." Oliver answered, leaning casually to her side.

"My mom would kill me…" muttered Felicity, biting her bottom lip. She looked at the huge neon sign on Saint Mark's in front of them and tried to decide whether to bail or carry on with her new dare.

"What do you want to do?" he looked down at her through his long eyelashes.

She turned to look at the building again. The neon lights made the place appear gorgeous, full of light and life. She knew this was almost nothing compared to running half-naked through a whole store full of wealthy people and their judgmental eyes. Plus, she felt like she could honestly trust Oliver, and she also knew he wouldn't do anything to humiliate her or make her do something she would regret forever. He was still staring at her, probably noticing her internal struggle, she guessed by the way his eyes swept over every single detail in of her face. The exhilarating feeling was still alive and running through her body and mind; releasing her lip from between her teeth slowly, she let out a sigh and took a step forward.

Oliver smiled at her, she noticed through the corner of her eye, and followed her, guiding her under the countless lights and counters with pipes, keeping his hand hovering against her lower back.

The actual tattoo parlor was a complete opposite compared with its bright entrance; it had dim red lights on the top of every showcase with designs and tools, but clear normal lights in every tattooing station where two artists were inking another person's body. Honestly, she didn't quite believe that she was there, preparing herself to get a tattoo.

 _ **LET OLIVER CHOOSE YOUR TATTOO  
|$5,000|**_

 _ **/ACCEPT/ /REJECT/**_

They went to one of the tables with designs and Oliver started eyeing each page, his eyes focused in deep thought and contemplation.

"Okay, just please no fire breathing dragons or knives, no clowns, no snakes, no skeletons…" she babbled nervously. He nodded along, still looking at the pages.

"What about panthers and tornadoes?" he pointed at one design with a huge panther head poking out of a horrible tornado.

"No!" Felicity looked at him in disbelief and he laughed under his breath.

"No?" he pouted at her repressing a smile.

"Whoa! What about this?" one of the artists called out. He had a long beard and a huge frizzy ponytail on the very top of his head. He pointed to his left bicep. "Just a tattoo of my dad. He's gorgeous, honestly, he's a nice looking guy," it did the trick, and Felicity relaxed a little bit in a soft laugh.

"Okay, I got a better idea…" Oliver grabbed a stack of sticky notes and took the nearest pencil. He started drawing with a frown.

"You're gonna draw it? No!" she went to stop him but he raised his free hand.

"Shh! Be quiet, I gotta concentrate. Back off." Felicity sighed and watched him suck his upper lip into his mouth. When he was satisfied enough, he went to the artist's station and showed it to him. "Can you do something like this but less shitty?"

"Yes!" he cheered and laughed. Then he looked at Felicity's panicked face. "I'm laughing cause it's good!"

"You guys, come on," she pouted.

"Hey, you have to trust us, that's the whole thing!" Oliver reminded her.

"You gotta trust me," the hairy artist said.

"And dirt beard…" remarked her partner.

She looked helplessly to both of them, and then she sigh. Dirt-Beard and Oliver hi-fived in victory. "The dare says it just has to be bigger than a quarter."

"Don't worry," Oliver reassured her walking towards her while the artist finished the tattoo he had in progress. "You'll be just fine."

"We'll, I'm nervous, like really nervous, I don't like being nervous," she let out in a rush. Oliver took a hold of her shoulders and bent a little bit to be at eye level with her. She noticed one more time how handsome he was, and with the dim light, his eyes seemed to be ever deeper than before, boring into her and staring into her very soul.

He smiled softly and that small dimple appeared on his cheek. "You'll be okay. But if you're really not up to it, you can bail. I mean, a tattoo it's going to be forever on your skin."

"I can do it, I know I can," she said convinced. "I'm just really nervous. This is the first time I've done something like this."

"Then if you're sure, you don't have to worry about anything. Just live in the moment. Besides, I'm gonna be with you the whole time." Oliver stated letting his hands travel down her arms to take hers in a reassuring act. "You can do this, Felicity. I believe in you."

"I can do this," she repeated and nodded to herself. She closed her eyes a couple of seconds and when she opened them, he was still there looking down at her, her hands were still wrapped by his long calloused fingers, his thumb tracing soothing patterns on the back of her hands. She smiled at him. "Thank you."

"We're partners in this, Felicity. I trust you." Oliver winked at her and she blushed, feeling much more relaxed.

"Okay, guys. I'm done here!" called out dirt-beard from his station, where the guy he had been tattooing was arranging his clothes. "You can come now, princess."

Felicity let out a sigh and took a step forward, sitting on the chair next to the funny artist. "Where is it going to be, Oliver?" she asked him when she was settled.

"Let's go for the shoulder," he suggested. She went to grab the zipper to expose her skin, but Oliver beat her to it and slid it down, putting the dress aside, and pointing to her left shoulder blade. "Right here."

A shiver ran down her spine and she felt his whole palm against her soft skin. She immediately felt reassured by the contact.

"Okay, let's get started," dirt-beard said and the machine came to life with that constant buzzing that the movies always showed. From the corner of her eye, she saw his hand approaching with the needle, and as soon as it touched her skin, she felt like a bee sting. She flinched but kept herself from saying anything by biting her lower lip. She felt the adrenaline going through her veins as she tried to relax.

After 10 minutes, her skin felt scalding hot and as if a laser was burning her whole shoulder blade area.

"Okay, okay. You can stop. I think we're good. We're good. The dare said it just had to be bigger than a quarter. This definitely feels bigger than a quarter." Felicity babbled grabbing the edge of the tattooing chair as hard as she could.

"You're doing great. It's almost done." Oliver said recording her with her phone.

"Okay, no. I think wherever we are at, we can stop– Ow!"

"Hold on, I'm just doing the "Y" in _daddy..._ " dirt-beard said.

"What?!" she exclaimed horrified.

"He's kidding. Don't listen to him!" said Oliver pointing the artist accusingly. He disappeared of her line of sight towards a computer.

"I really don't like that noise at all!" she continued with her word vomit. "Ow! Where the hell are my endorphins!"

The background music, an old track by Iron Maiden, changed and a familiar song started. Her chest ached for a completely different reason and she actually turned to look at Oliver, who was staring at her intensely trying to figure out her reaction. Even the artist stopped what he was doing to nod approvingly to Oliver, who lifted up the camera again. _C.R.E.A.M._ by Wu-Tang Clan was one of Roy's favorites, and she remembered with clarity how loud they would both rap it on his room, making their mother laugh all the way from the kitchen.

Another wave of hotness went by her shoulder, making her express her pain again. She knew exactly what Oliver was trying to do, and she appreciated it a lot. She looked at the ceiling forcing her muscles to relax.

" _Dolla dolla bill y'all!"_ she sang along. " _I grew up on the crime side of New York Times side, staying alive was no jive. At second hands, moms bounced on old men, so then we moved to Shaolin land. A young youth, yo rockin' the gold tooth, 'lo goose, only way, I begin to gee off—_ I forgot the rest." Felicity laughed.

"Rocking that gold tooth!" Oliver mocked at her.

"Stop _—_ Ow!" she grimaced again. He laughed, his nose wrinkling, and sat on the couch in front of her, being just a couple of inches away from her.

"Wu-Tang fan, huh?" he asked her with a bright smile.

"My brother used to listen to them all the time." Felicity replied giving him a smile of his own.

"Oh, yeah? You have a brother?"

Her smile faltered and she suddenly felt completely numb. It killed her every time that she stopped to think about Roy and his death. He was her greatest weakness, because of how much it hurt, but at the same time, he was her greatest strength. There was no way she could have become who she was without that constant reminder of the good times with him and his smile and his gut. He was her guardian angel.

Even though he wasn't her blood brother, DNA was the only thing that separated them. Her mother had taken him in when his parents left him in a casino and never came back. Roy had been three years old back then. And her mother, as a worker there, saw him and instantly felt compassion, guarding him under her wing and raising him as her own. He was family, and the fact that he had changed his last name from Harper to Smoak at the age of fifteen proved that. He had been one of Felicity's best friends and the best brother anyone could have ever wished.

"Had a brother," she answered looking at her hands. "He died right before starting college."

Oliver's whole demeanor changed. "I'm sorry," then he hesitated, as if he didn't know if he was allowed to push further. "How long ago was that?"

"Two years ago, he was eighteen." Felicity said. "This July, I'll be older than him. Older than my older brother _—_ Ow!" a new wave of pain rushed through her skin and she flinched.

"Hey, hey, come on," Oliver grabbed her hand that was grabbing the edge of the chair and ran his thumb over her knuckles. "Stay with me."

She focused on finishing her story and looked at his conflicted face. "He was just one of those people that wasn't afraid of anything. He always said yes. He would laugh so hard if he saw me getting a tattoo right now."

"Boom!" dirt-beard interrupted. "I am done! Go to that mirror and you celebrate my work."

"Come on, let's go." Oliver said with a new look in his eyes, like he was watching her in a different way.

"Do I want to see?" she asked nervously, and grateful that it was finally over.

"Yes, yes and yes," he got up and offered her his hand, and both of them walked towards the mirror on the back of the store.

Felicity moved the dress again to see her shoulder and what she saw there almost brought tears to her eyes. A huge smile started to spread slowly in her face as she looked back to Oliver, who was recording her reaction.

"A lighthouse? I love it. Thank you."

Oliver lowered the phone and took a step forward. "Well, a very wise person once said, and this was earlier today…" he sent her a sideways look and she rolled her eyes. "They said that the lighthouse represents the thing that you want the most. So, whatever that is, I hope you get it."

She just stared at him for a long moment and then muttered again, "Thank you."

* * *

" _What's up, young Jedi?_ " John heard through the phone.

"Yeah, hi," he said distracted while pressing the screen of his tablet.

" _We miss you down here at the club!"_ Lyla exclaimed with a happy voice.

"You're watching Nerve, right?" he asked going straight to the point.

" _Yeah, man. We all are,"_ she answered.

John leaned against the hood of the car and continued his petition. "Alright, I'm trying to find out more about this Oliver guy."

" _Oliver, my dude!_ " Lyla cheered. " _He's playing with your little friend, Felicity, right?_ "

"Yeah, but I'm looking on his profile and there's just nothing on the guy."

" _Well, did you try Google?"_

"Yeah, I tried Google," he sighed frustrated.

" _I guess he's a ghost then."_

"Look," John said, knowing that there was no way she was going to like his request. "I need a ticket to Aruba."

Lyla stayed silent for a couple of seconds and the background noise stopped. " _What? No."_

"Yes, come on."

" _No way! You're not ready for that shit. You're gonna mess up my rating!"_ she argued getting annoyed.

"I'm not gonna mess up your rating! I'm not gonna buy guns or something, man!" he tried to convince her.

" _Digg, no. Not happening_."

"Look, I'm just worried about my friend, please." Lyla stayed silent, and he took that as a good sign. "Come on, please."

"Alright. I'll send you a passkey."

"Okay, thank you so much, Lyla."

" _Just be careful, Digg_."

John hanged up the phone and went inside his car. The radio was blasting with a pop song that Felicity liked, and he let out a deep breath. He was only trying to protect his best friend, was that a sin? If not, why was he feeling like she wouldn't approve what he was doing? His phoned beeped with a new message from Lyla.

 _ **Don't do anything dumb, dummy…**_

The text was followed with a series of number and letters combined. He quickly answered with a thankful message and the promise of him paying dinner, and entered to the navigator. Typing the link to the dark web Aruba, he pasted Lyla's referred key and the page let him in.

"God, I love the internet…" he muttered.

The home page was full of different banners offering drugs, guns, blank bullets, porn and other illegal things. He went to the bottom of the page, to the searcher in forum and typed: _oliver nerve dare motorcycle._

The browser opened and millions of forum entrees showed up on the screen of his tablet, many appraising this year's competition so far and commenting about Oliver and his previous dares. There was a particular gif animation of him stealing the bike he was now riding with Felicity. He rolled his eyes at some comments about his looked but stopped dead on his tracks when certain comment showed: _**I can't believe he's playing again... after Seattle last year...**_

"What?" John whispered dumbfounded. He continued scrolling down and bumped into a short video on loop where Oliver appeared with a green hoodie on top of a crane with another guy hanging from it.

" _You don't have to do this!"_ Oliver shouted on the video to the guy.

" _I can do this!"_ the guy answered and then the video continued to repeat on a loop.

"Oliver has played before?" Digg said still surprised. He quickly grabbed his phone and dialed Felicity's number, going straight to voice mail. With a frustrated sigh, he started the car to go and find Sara.

* * *

"Okay, they're asking if I can trust you… Can I?" Oliver looked back at her with a cocky smile. Felicity grabbed his arm and pushed him back towards the entrance of the tattoo parlor.

"I have the perfect tattoo picked out for you," she said and he scrunched his nose, but then stopped when his phone made another sound.

"Wait, wait… No, okay, it's not a tattoo dare." Oliver touched the screen a couple of times.

"What is it?"

"Just says go to Park and 25th…" he shrugged and then tugged at her hand for her to follow him towards the motorcycle.

"What do you think it's going to be?" she asked him putting on the helmet he offered.

He draped one leg over the bike and waited for her to get on, adjusting his phone in a device on the steering wheel. "I don't really know. There's been all kind of dares, all different for each Player, and I don't think there's another couple of Players partnered up. So, honestly, it could be anything."

Felicity hopped on the back seat, moving her dress to cover as much as her legs as possible, even though it was a warm night. She got herself comfortable and brought her arms up to wrap them around Oliver's waist. They hooked themselves of the lapels of his suit jacket, the buttons of his shirt making her hands tickle. Her chest went to curve over his back and her head rested nicely between his shoulder blades.

"I'm sorry." Oliver blurted out turning his head to the side lightly to see her through the corner of his eye. "About your brother I mean. But I just want you to know that whatever experiences you had to go through, I'm glad that you did. They shaped the person you are today…" he moved again to see her better and she separated from him to meet his eyes, his deep blue eyes. "And I really like that person."

And just like that, he looked ahead again, and made the engine roar back to life. Felicity, so silently, went back to her previous position, but this time, her hands flat on his stomach, the only thing separating their skins being the thin shirt he had on. The drive to the place that the Watchers had indicated was silent, just the sound of the alive and vibrant people of Starling City surrounding them.

It only took them twelve minutes to get to the location, a corner with an old church, a nice coffee shop and a jewelry shop. Oliver hopped off the bike and helped her to get off as well.

"How's the tattoo feeling?" he asked her, as she leaned on the motorcycle.

"It feels hot. Like a constant feeling of my skin burning, but that's it." Felicity said feeling the bandage that covered the raw skin from the fabric of the dress.

Then, his phone beeped with the new dare. "Here we go…" he said and stepped closer to her to show her the screen. "Get to 60 miles per hour… That's it."

"Okay," she laughed.

"Alright? Easy one, okay. Let's do this."

Another sound interrupted them and he quickly read the message on his phone, his face slightly paling. He looked at her with wide eyes and a cautious expression. "What did that just say?"

He just showed her the screen and the yellow words on the black background.

 _ **GET TO 60MPH BLINDFOLDED  
/$10,000/**_

 _ **|ACCEPT| |REJECT|**_

"Blindfolded? On the motorcycle?" she exclaimed.

"Yeah…" Oliver answered still with that careful look on his face.

"You're on your own with that one." Felicity made an attempt to go but didn't make it far enough before he caught up with her.

"W-wait, I can't do this alone. Come on, I need you to help me navigate," he begged.

"There's no way in hell I'm doing that!" she tried to reason with him. "I'm sorry. I'm out," he gave her a disbelieving look, like he couldn't understand that after all she had done during the night, she was bailing on him. "Thank you for tonight. I had a lot of fun, got a new dress. But I'm… I'm good."

She raised her hand for him to shake, which he did really sloppily. "Stay, let's see what else happens." Oliver smiled at her charmingly trying to convince her. She opened her mouth to say her final goodbyes, when a huge truck stopped right next to them with a loud noise, and an equally huge guy hopped down from it. Felicity recognized him as one of the other Players that was on the top 10 chart the last time she checked.

"Yo! What's up guys?" he greeted them. Beside her, Oliver rolled her eyes in annoyance. "Felicity, love your wardrobe," he gave her a folded paper and raised his phone with a blinding flash straight to her face. "Could you hold that for me? Hold it up."

Felicity did as the guy asked and unfolded the piece of paper. It was actually a sticker that read: _STARLING FUCKING CITY._ Another sound came out from his phone, and he finally turned off the flash, leaving her with little white spots each time she blinked.

"Great," the guy said. He climbed again on his truck and as he drove away, he shouted, "Oliver, see you in the finals!" and then he was gone.

"Who was that guy?" she asked him with a deep frown.

"I don't know, just another Player." Oliver shrugged, but she could see certain level of apprehension, making her think he wasn't being entirely truthful with her. "Felicity, come on, do this with me. Please, I need you," she stayed silent, just looking at his hopeful eyes. He apparently took that as a good sign and continued to sweet talk. "Look, you'd be in control. Say yes, just say yes."

He was doing that thing he did with his eyebrows, that expression that could only be described as puppy eyes. Half of his bottom lip was being bitten, and he just _couldn't stop looking at her like that, sweet Jesus._ She sighed and forced herself to look away, her eyes falling on the coffee shop, where many people where sharing a cup of coffee either alone or with their couples. If she did it, she was running the risk of getting hurt or even killed if it was really bad, and not only that, but dragging down Oliver with her as well. But if she didn't, she was probably going to regret it, besides, she would be the one controlling everything, and since Oliver _clearly_ didn't have any intention to bail, it was better to try and ensure his safety by going with him.

And she could even believe that she was getting convinced at doing something like this.

Felicity looked at him again, and the answer must have shown in her eyes, because his entire demeanor changed, and a bright smile broke in his face.

"Yes!" he whispered in triumph. "Thank you so much, Felicity."

"Just hop on the bike," she muttered.

God helped them, because they would need to find a way to make it through and not get themselves killed in the process.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary:** High-school wallflower Felicity decides to participate in an online game that involves completing challenges and dares throughout Starling City. Although she is initially thrilled by the game's antics - and the fact that it asks her to partner with a handsome stranger for some of the tasks - the experience eventually escalates into a life-or-death struggle.

 **Disclaimer:** I do not own _Arrow, Nerve_ , or any of its characters. This is an adaptation of the movie with the same name.

 **A/N:** Hey guys! I'm so sorry about not updating, everything's been so crazy these last couple of months. I came back to Chile after spending five months in Canada, and the adaptation was hard af, also I started my classes for my last year, so I've been busy with that too, and oon top of everything, I moved from my hometown to the capital of my country. But anyways, now that things finally settled down a little bit, I hope the next update comes faster, but I can't promise anything, just that I will not give up on this story until it is finished. With that said, thank you for reading and I hope you enjoy it, don't forget to follow, favorite and review this story, it means so much to me, and encourages me to keep writing! Happy reading!

* * *

Laurel swiped her finger across the screen while Curtis threw another ball, winning yet another round of beer pong. Her focus was in her phone alone, watching the name of her friend go up and up in the Top Charts, and honestly, she couldn't care less about the goddamned party. Her head had been anywhere but there from the start. What she was really concerned about was how out of the blue Felicity was risking her life. She admitted, though, that she kind of enjoyed the look of surprise on her sister's face when she discovered that not only she was playing Nerve, but also that she was one of the top Players being watched in the world. She knew that Felicity may have done it out of impulse, but she was getting too carried away by the adrenaline and that biker guy.

A gasp fell out of her mouth when she glanced at the new dare that was given to Oliver. The clock indicated that they were going to start in twelve seconds.

"No way..." she muttered, ignoring Curtis who was calling her name.

She started making her way through the clouds of smoke coming from weed joints and tilted beer cans. She did notice Jacks and another football player, Rip Hunter, exchanging curious looks before deciding to follow her.

"Sara!" she called after her sister, coughing at one especially thick mist of smoke that a girl let out. "Sara!"

Her sister stood talking with a guy and holding her cup with whatever alcoholic drink in it close to her face. "What?" she said with an uninterested face.

"Oh my God, you're not gonna believe this..." Laurel swiped up her phone and the big yellow letters showed themselves on the TV screen. A small crowd started to form behind her and gasps could be heard all over the room.

 _ **GET TO 60MPH BLINDFOLDED  
**_ _ **/$10,000/**_

"What? Are you kidding me?" Sara exclaimed. A few seconds later the letters started to fade as the camera on Oliver's phone started to show an image. It was mounted on the wheel where they could see his helmet-covered face and a peripheral view of his surroundings. On the back of the bike, Felicity could be clearly seen with her green dress and respective helmet, looking nervous as hell.

"She can't be doing this!" Curtis exclaimed from behind her.

"Well, looks like she is." Jacks said with a wicked smile.

 _"Are you ready?"_ Oliver turned to look at his partner.

 _"Yeah."_ Felicity whispered. Oliver put the visor on its place and blocking his sight with the sticker the previous player had given him, with that huge imprint of STARLING FUCKING CITY. He let out a loud exhalation and their friend followed suit, glancing at the red street lights that would give them the start of their dare. Sara stepped forward, right in front of the TV, her drink long forgotten on the center table.

 _"Now remember, you're my eyes,"_ the biker said putting one of his hands on top of hers, that were tangled on his stomach. He lingered for a little bit and then returned it to the wheel. The lights turned green.

 _"Okay... green..."_ Felicity choked from her nervousness and with one last breath, they surged forward with a call to hold on tight.

They tumbled on the road without control, the panicked expression on Felicity's face growing more and more. The bike was going from side to side, and Oliver wasn't able to control it.

" _You okay?_ " he asked.

" _Yeah!_ " Felicity choked out.

" _Just keep your eyes open!_ " her friend spluttered a wave of desperate okays. " _Hey, I know you're scared, but you gotta talk to me, Liz!"_

" _No, no, no!_ " she started saying when they almost collided in the side of the road.

" _We got this! What's going on? Are we good?"_

 _"Taxi to the right!"_ she screamed as he slowly went to the right and the honk of the taxi sounded. "Right, right!"

 _"You got a sticker on your helmet! Are you crazy!"_ yelled the black man from the taxi.

" _Thank you!_ " responded Oliver as Felicity frenetically started apologizing.

" _You're leaning to the left! Left!_ " she screamed at the top of her lungs. _"Okay, too far left, right! Right!"_

Oliver said something they didn't understand, but everybody was stuck to the TV screen, waiting to know what would happen. Curtis, next to Laurel, was cheering louder than everyone else, but the only one that remained completely silent was Sara.

The bike was about to impact a piece of concrete that would knock them down, when Felicity leaned her body hard to the right, taking Oliver, and the wheel, with her. They successfully avoided the hard body of cement, and then stabilized, keeping their balance and their direction straight.

 _"Okay, I think that worked, yeah? Are we good?_ " said Oliver.

" _Actually, yes,_ " answered Felicity with a disbelieving smile.

 _"Okay, keep doing that!"_

 _"Just lean?"_

 _"Yes, lean left or right, you are in control."_

They gave it a little try and they passed two cars in different lanes smoothly. Oliver nodded, clearly pleased. _"That's good."_

"No way she's doing this..." Sara said incredulous. The Watchers counter on the bottom of the screen showed almost fifty thousand people watching them.

 _"This is good, you're doing great!"_

 _"Okay! Speed up!"_

 _"Yes, ma'am!_ "

Oliver hit the gas and they started going faster and faster. _"Thirty! We're halfway there! Okay, the next light is... green! And the next light is green!"_

 _"Good, good, you got this."_

" _Next light is..._ " she seemed to freeze and the camera on the front showed that the light was turning yellow.

 _"Come on, stay with me, what's going on?"_ Oliver asked maintaining his balance.

" _Next light is green! Faster!"_ Felicity put her right on top of his and moved it to press on the gas.

"No, no, no!" was heard from somewhere in the room.

A taxi passed in front of them and the van behind it hit the breaks to stop less than an inch from Felicity's leg, provoking a yelp to come out from her mouth. The whole room of teenagers gasped in unison.

They continued their way, Felicity guiding them between the cars and avoiding the typical Starling City traffic, as Watchers in the scene were recording live themselves to show their point of view as the whole thing went down.

" _We're doing this, Liz!"_ Oliver exclaimed.

" _Sixty seconds!"_

 _"Alright, are we clear now?"_

 _"Still clear!"_

"Oh my god, she's really doing this..." whispered Sara.

* * *

The rush of the wind slamming against her face and hair made the adrenaline running through her veins to make her blood pump. Her mind was completely focused on guiding Oliver (and the motorcycle) on the street and trying to not get them killed. The red light had been a close call, but now the road was getting clearer and they were approaching a tunnel that would give them the opportunity to gain more speed. Everything was just fine, they were managing amazingly, and she felt actually comfortable with the whole situation. Oliver was doing great, he obeyed every single movement she made, and encouraged her to keep going, saying that she was great and calling her 'Liz'. It caused emotions in her that she had never felt before, of excitement and freshness and freedom.

Her thoughts were interrupted by the call of a woman on the sidewalk for a taxi. The yellow car on their left turned in front of them, almost causing them to collide, but Felicity, letting out a gasp, turned them to a side road that would lead them to the tunnel in a violent way. Oliver let out his own surprise at the unseen turn, but let them lean back to balance.

They entered the tunnel, gaining velocity, and drove between two cars, letting the pavement almost empty of vehicles.

"I always wanted to do that, "she said with a smiley sigh.

"Time check!" Oliver asked.

"Fifteen seconds!" answered Felicity glancing at the phone.

"Speed!"

"Forty-five, forty-six, forty-seven...!" she counted as they passed a red van. The sliding doors from the right side opened, and a bunch of teenagers with masks and weird appearances.

"Oliver! We love you!" a girl with crazy hair yelled.

"Love you too!" he answered charmingly.

"Let's go!" Felicity urged as her hand, which still was on top of his, moved backwards to hit the gas. They neared the end of the tunnel and final couple of seconds, so she glanced at the phone screen to check the time and the speed. "Fifty-seven, fifty-eight, fifty-nine... Sixty!" she let out a huge scream full of adrenaline, Oliver response was the same one, as he removed the visor with the sticker from his face to be able to see.

"Oh, shit!" he reacted as he saw the end of the road and a concrete church right in front of them. "Hold on!"

He pressed the brakes hard, like really hard, and he turned the motorcycle right in the end, before they could crush against a cement angel statue.

They stayed there for a second before hopping off the bike and Oliver screamed from his very inside to let out all the adrenaline still in his body, and Felicity did this weird victory dance, taking her helmet off and jumping around. They started talking simultaneously, each one letting everything out.

"Ah! That's the craziest thing I've ever done!"

"I can believe we just did that!"

"You were incredible! I wanna like— Agh!"

Oliver's hand were clutched in fists at his sides, and Felicity just acted out of instinct, driven by the wild emotions going through her right now. She stepped close to him, invading his personal space and pressed her lips softly, but fast, to his curved ones. She felt his hand pressing on her forearm, pulling her closer, so she placed hers on the small of his back. They kissed again, more deeply, without a rush, with the wind against their skin, and their hearts beating for multiple reasons. He grabbed her by her face gently, allowing them to be even closer, and she dropped the helmet that was previously held by her left hand. She felt invincible, untouchable, powerful, fearless, remarkable, wanted, beautiful and great, and as she continued responding to his kisses, she thought that this felt way too good to stop their connection right then. She barely noticed the cab that went by their side and teenagers making comments to them, probably recording them for Nerve.

The lack of air, plus their aching chests, made them unlock their lips, but instead, lock their eyes in a union that seemed to express more than any words they could exchange.

He had this dorky smiley frown on his face, and he scrunched his nose in a way she was recognizing as only his. "You hungry at all?" he asked her.

"Big Belly's?" she said tilting her head to the side and responding his shiny smile.

"Big Belly's, right, I swear I was going to say Big Belly's..."

She laughed, her heart warm. This guy just kept surprising her, and as they shared another meaningful kiss, she registered that this was the first time she felt truly, wholly happy and excited since Roy's death.

* * *

Sara stormed angrily into an office, making a beeline to her phone that was charging next to the wood desk. She still was incredibly upset for what she had just seen and the reaction of the rest if the people that she could hear cheering in the TV room. She couldn't believe how her best friend, shy, naïve Felicity, had become such a different person in one night, a girl that accept dares, goes around in a motorcycle with a stranger doing reckless and life threatening things, and kissing that random stranger that just happened to have a click with. It was a totally opposite of who she had always been, at least, since Roy's accident.

She could still remember that day, a typical hot summer day, when their entire group (Liz, her, Laurel, Curtis and Diggle) had met to go to the city from their island. They were on their way to catch the ferry, all squished together in the back of a ridiculously small taxi when her bestie received the call from the hospital saying that her brother had suffered a serious bullet wound to his thorax, and that her mother had been already notified and on her way to Everglow General Hospital. Felicity hung the phone with a poker face, and just told the driver to pull over. She grabbed her bag and purse and started to run. Sara and their friends tried to call for her and follow her, but by the time they understood she wanted space, she had been too far away anyways. After all the process she had to go through with the funeral and trying to take care of her depressed mother, she became an insecure person, shy, introverted, and definitely closed off. While Digg and her remained as her best friends, her relationship with everyone else was guarded and she didn't dare to share her feelings or thoughts or ideas.

And she became another person with only the help of a stranger. She was frustrated, and worried, but most of all, she was angry, and the fact that she was extremely competitive didn't help either as Liz moved up and up the charts.

"Hey, Watchers," she said to the phone, smiling forcefully. "Okay, listen. You and I both know that I should be in that box. So please, stop holding back, okay? You guys don't need to be afraid because I'm not afraid, so just give me a real dare!"

She heard the door behind her close and she turned around hesitantly. It was a guy she recognized but did not know.

It was Slade Wilson. The Player number one in the Nerve charts.

The guy was huge in every sense of the world. He was incredibly tall, amazingly broad, and sported a careless little beard. His dark skin and dark hair were a huge contrast to his light green eyes, which weirdly enough, contained certain darkness in them.

"What's up, Sara, baby?" he said. His voice was just as rough as she imagined it would be, certain accent leaking out, Australian probably. He leaned against the door as he checked her out.

"What are you doing here?" she asked hesitantly. She was being wary, because she didn't know what to expect from him.

Slade pushed himself away from the door and started walking towards her, approaching her like a careful animal that could jump at any second. "You got a lot of Watchers..." he started casually. "I got a lot of Watchers... Maybe we could... team up."

His lips pursed with that final sound, and Sara studied him for a moment.

"I don't need a partner."

"Seems to work for your friend Liz." Slade pointed out. He got a step closer and the door opened in that same moment. Ray Palmer, Jackson and other members of the football team came in, their laughs and smiles dying when taking in the scene before them. Ray took a step forward and directed his eyes to hers.

"Hey, Sara. You alright?" the captain asked her glancing between her and Slade, who let out a scoff.

"Yeah, we were just talking." Sara smiled at him to assure him.

Slade looked at Ray with arrogance, and lifted his eyebrows. "Yo, Mad Max, why don't you show yourself out, man?" Palmer said, with a stance that clearly said he wasn't going to take any bullshit.

The Player got close to Sara again and grabbed her wrist with unexpected gentleness. He bumped their phones together and his profile showed itself on her screen. They locked eyes and Sara was tempted to kick him out herself.

"Call me."

He made a movement to walk out of the room, meeting Ray's expectant glance, and mocked him. He read the name on his jersey and leaded two fingers to his forehead. "Captain..." then he directed to the door and made a final stop to pinch Jackson's chubby cheeks. "Party on, man!"

* * *

An unknown song was playing when his phone started ringing, showing Donna's picture as the caller. He reluctantly accepted the call and decided to bite his tongue.

"Hey, Donna!" he answered.

" _Digg, hi, I have a quick question. How would I know if I'm being hacked?_ " Felicity's mom answered with a confused tone.

"Wh-what do you mean?"

" _Hacked! Somebody has been depositing money into my account under Lizzy's name._ "

"That doesn't sound like a hack, normally they would take money out if they were hacking you..." he wasn't sure if he wanted to laugh or to find Felicity to kick some sense into her and the consequences of her acts.

" _John, what are you not telling me?_ "

 _Busted._

"Oh! It must have- it may be- Liz got a job!"

"What? A job?"

"Yeah, that's probably it! She did an online pocker thing, and she's very great at it!" he said, frowning at his own words.

" _Okay... is it legal?_ "

"Yeah, it's legal! She's doing great, as you can tell from the deposits. But anyway, I gotta go, I'm writing a paper right now on motorcycle safety, I'm gonna get going—"

 _"Well, tell her to call me."_

"Yeah! Bye!"

Diggle hung up his phone and shook his head. He needed to get to that stupid party and get Sara to bring back Felicity.

* * *

She chewed on the straw of her plastic cup with the Big Belly Burger logo on it, sipping her cookies and cream milkshake. They were walking side to side through a park, talking and eating, when they reached the beautifully lit Star Carrousel.

"You want to take a ride?" Oliver said with his mouth full of fries.

"Is this a dare?" she teased him, swallowing the creamy texture of her drink.

He made a sound of disapproval. "It's a carrousel!"

He took her free hand and pushed her forward, leaving her hand greasy with fries oil, but she said nothing, because she didn't really care. They jumped on the moving carrousel and started walking with it, letting the maze of different horses envelope them in a sweet dance of lights and movement.

"So, why are you playing Nerve?" Felicity dared to ask.

"Trying to help out my family. Some things happened that I wish turned out differently," he told her. His smile was a little forced, but she was left with the mystery of his background. She had never liked mysteries. They were meant to be solved, and Oliver was like a never ending mystery that she wanted to unravel.

"Like what?" she questioned after a little hesitance.

He looked at her and let out a long sigh, smiling again to probably hide his discomfort about the subject. "This is just kind of something that I need to do, so..."

A short silence that seemed to last for at least good minute stretched between them. He was hiding something, she knew that, but she also wasn't going to cross a line he didn't want to share with her. After all, she was just a stranger that had become his partner in a game he needed to complete. It wasn't like she was his best friend or his girlfriend. Still, she felt like there was much more story that he was letting on, a background that was trying to be buried.

"We got some paparazzi..." Oliver informed her with that deep, growly voice of him. "Hide!"

That seemed to break the ice, and she laughed before running after him and getting off the carrousel to the part of the park that led to the beach.

Her phone started to vibrate, and she looked at the screen waiting for a new dare from the game, but she was welcomed with Sara's face instead, the incoming call reciting her name.

"Who is it?" Oliver asked. She showed him the phone without a word, debating in her mind to answer or not. "So that's Sara... You gonna get it?"

She looked at the screen again and slid her finger to the decline option. She knew what she was going to say to her, and, honestly, she didn't really want to hear it, which was the exact same reason she had been declining calls from Digg, Curtis, Laurel and her mom throughout the night. "I don't wanna deal with her right now."

"What's going on?" Oliver touched her forearm, sliding his thumb in a gentle caress that she felt through the fabric of her dress.

"She's just been odd recently. But, whatever, you don't want to talk about that."

He looked at her with sincerity and concern. "If you wanna talk about it, I'm here. Happy to listen."

The issue with Sara was delicate. They had been best friends since they were kids, and she proved to be anytime Felicity needed it. She was there in silence, giving her advice, reassuring her, telling her she would be alright, saying when she thought she was doing something wrong. She had proven to be a good friend, to be someone worth having around. But when the waters were calm in both of their lives, especially when they were in public, she treated her like her assistant, like she was her mini, like...

"I'm just tired of being her sidekick all the time."

"That's funny. You don't seem like anyone's sidekick. Could I see that picture again?" Oliver asked tilting his head to his right, his blue eyes watching her intensely. She opened the original photo and handed him the phone. He examined it and zoomed in Sara's face. "Wow."

And that was how, once again, she became a second choice.

"Yeah, guys go crazy for her."

She looked away from him to the wide ocean and the lights from Everglow Island. She was tired of being the second one, and Oliver's reaction just made the wound sting even more.

"No, I mean the picture itself. It's really good."

That captured her attention. Not many people recognized photography when the model was really hot, especially not men, and the fact that the point was made from him kind of filled her with pride. "Thank you." Felicity said, and then added, "I took it."

"Yeah? You have a good eye," he made an expression with his face that made her think he was considering if saying what he wanted to or not, but it appeared he was going to say it anyways. "I just— I can't picture you hanging out with someone like this."

"What do you mean?" she crossed her arms on her chest and leaned on the glass fence that separated the beach from the park.

"I don't know, she looks kind of... insecure. Is that mean?" he was looking at her like he was preoccupied of insulting her friend.

"She is totally insecure!" Felicity exploded, finally feeling able to express her feelings about the situation. "I mean, she makes it seem like I'm the one who's insecure, but really it's her. It's exhausting!"

"I'm sure." Oliver agreed with her.

"She's at this party, most likely drunk and needs me to hold her hair back. I'm just over it. I mean, so are her parents. They're constantly out of town, so she has this revolving door of guys over," she continues, not noticing a guy behind Oliver with a phone in his hands. "It's sad actually..."

She went back to watch the lights of her home in the distance. In the corner of her eye, she saw Oliver checking his phone, probably just wondering for the time, and then he turned to her once again, biting his lower lip before speaking.

"Hey, that party..." he started with a tone that was just flat. "Should we maybe go and check it out?" Oliver suggested.

"What? Why would I want to go to that party?"

"Maybe show off your new tattoo," he was just trying to convince her, for what reason, she didn't know. "Show Sara that you're not the person she thinks you are."

She connected her grayish eyes with his deep blue ones, and smiled slightly.


End file.
